Returning to STO after 2+ Years

[Fitzgerald]

Ahoy the 12th,

Returning after a 2 year absence, I'm trying to catch up with everything. Wondering if any Fleeties have some pro tips for me, like must-have pieces of gear or can't-miss content. As you might imagine, I have some questions!

Level 50-60 - Currently level 52, and I've read that this is a grindy slog to 60. Any tips on leveling? So far I've just been doing a mix of Delta Rising episodes plus some PvE queues. Any other worthwhile quests/episodes that I should keep an eye on?

Fleet Starbase & Fleet Gear - I left the game just before the launch of Fleet Starbases. Not surprised to come back and see the 12th has been busy as beavers and that Starbase Valhalla is fully upgraded, so obviously my assistance is not required here! I have discovered the turn in extra Fleet Marks for Fleet Coins function, though, which I'm saving for gear. Speaking of which, is Fleet gear still worth having, either at cap or while leveling up? I hear the Fleet Warp Cores are particularly good. Any thing else associated with the Fleet Starbase you think I should know (I've also found the mine daily).

PvP - Sisyl and Amicus have given me useful updates on the (pretty sad) state of PvP in STO, but I'm wondering if the queues are separated: are there public matches that only have levels 50-55 or 50-59, and would exclude the T6 "vapor" ships? Or are we all - levels 50-60 - lumped into one group?

Crafting - Never been a fan of crafting in STO, and while I don't expect that to change, I'm always willing to craft items if I happen to have the mats. I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading my existing Mk XII gear, or should I craft new stuff? Or ignore crafting altogether, and focus on getting gear elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for your reply!

[Kahn]

As far as the leveling side goes, I've found several DOFF missions in the Delta Quadrant that give some pretty impressive chunks of XP. I'd suggest filling your DOFF roster with missions and you usually get a few bars from that alone. Otherwise, missions and queue's are the best way to get XP that I've found.

Fleet gear wise, the engineering consoles from our Dilithium Mine are pretty much a must have, as well as the tactical consoles from the Spire. I've used the weapons a few times as well. If you go down that road though, get the Advanced weapons and upgrade them. I used the Elite Phaser/Disruptors and they just aren't worth it and cost so much more.

I haven't done too much PVP recently because of the leveling and grinding I've been doing, but from what I hear on the OrganizedPVP channel, things are not good for folks who haven't blown tons of money on Vape builds.

Crafting wise? The 12th has several people who can craft you whatever you need i'm sure. If you're not really into crafting I wouldn't really put much into it. You can find most anything you need in the Fleet, or on the exchange. You can turn a nice EC profit if you feel like farming a lot and selling mods after you reach level 15. Personal preference though on that one.

Anyway hope that helps. If you need anything else let me know.

[Fitzgerald]

Thanks Kahn, that's very helpful!

[adastra1930]

Crafting-wise, I find it's marginally better to craft your own Mk II and upgrade, so you get exactly what you want. Plus upgrading that many levels gives you a good chance of getting to ultra-rare or even epic before you hit Mk XIV, whereas if you hit Mk XIV, you have to keep spending dil and upgrades to get rarity increases o_O

[Fitzgerald]

Interesting...so perhaps I should just do that for my 8 beam weps: craft the Mk IIs and level them up, thanks pro tip!

[QorDaq]

Ahoy the 12th,

...Level 50-60 - Currently level 52, and I've read that this is a grindy slog to 60. Any tips on leveling? So far I've just been doing a mix of Delta Rising episodes plus some PvE queues. Any other worthwhile quests/episodes that I should keep an eye on?...

In my experience leveling multiple Toons to 60, is that there is not enough content in Delta to do this without Grinding Patrols.

Instead, what I have been doing, is just focusing on leveling T6 ships (for the Traits), DOffing everywhere (once you max out at T4 in a given Commendation Path, you can still do the Duty Officers missions for those paths), running Dilithium Dailies, and so on. The Dyson Ground and Space battle zones are great for Dilithium, and Space is decent for leveling Ships (still grindy). And, of course you have Reputations and Crafting to work on as well.

Basically, do everything in the game except Delta to keep your mind off of the Delta grind.

Once I hit around level 58.5, THEN I start the Delta Missions and Patrols. This will be a straight shot to 60.

Once you have leveled one Toon and know the Story progression, if you want to level Alts, I suggest doing the same thing as above, but once you hit 58.5 queue up everything that you can (Story and Patrols), and just start at the top of the map and work your way down since you already know the story, doing them out of order does not matter.

There is a good story in Delta, but you only need to "Experience" it once in a linear sense, which saves you running back and forth up and down the maps.

Success to you and welcome back to the fold Fitzgerald.

maj!

[Fitzgerald]

Well, I've spend about 45,000 dil (!) and a few hundred thousand EC (!) on crafting 8 beams and getting them up in level as far as I can: furthest I've gotten is between Marks VI and X: don't have the resources for further upgrades Getting the Tech Upgrades is the hardest, especially the purple ones. I know I can craft them at certain levels, but I'm not gaining very much xp at all, and so I'm stuck on Level 2 in research.

I guess I'll come back to it later. I feel I really should have just saved my resources up for fleet gear.

[cmdraftbrn]

Ahoy the 12th,

...Level 50-60 - Currently level 52, and I've read that this is a grindy slog to 60. Any tips on leveling? So far I've just been doing a mix of Delta Rising episodes plus some PvE queues. Any other worthwhile quests/episodes that I should keep an eye on?...

In my experience leveling multiple Toons to 60, is that there is not enough content in Delta to do this without Grinding Patrols.

Instead, what I have been doing, is just focusing on leveling T6 ships (for the Traits), DOffing everywhere (once you max out at T4 in a given Commendation Path, you can still do the Duty Officers missions for those paths), running Dilithium Dailies, and so on. The Dyson Ground and Space battle zones are great for Dilithium, and Space is decent for leveling Ships (still grindy). And, of course you have Reputations and Crafting to work on as well.

Basically, do everything in the game except Delta to keep your mind off of the Delta grind.

Once I hit around level 58.5, THEN I start the Delta Missions and Patrols. This will be a straight shot to 60.

Once you have leveled one Toon and know the Story progression, if you want to level Alts, I suggest doing the same thing as above, but once you hit 58.5 queue up everything that you can (Story and Patrols), and just start at the top of the map and work your way down since you already know the story, doing them out of order does not matter.

There is a good story in Delta, but you only need to "Experience" it once in a linear sense, which saves you running back and forth up and down the maps.

Success to you and welcome back to the fold Fitzgerald.

maj!

qft. find a happy place and stay there.

[Fitzgerald]

Made level 55 and Admiral last night, yay!

Looking for specific tips to increase the XP gain. I've probably been spending a bit too much time in the newly-discovered (to me) Sphere adventure zone, which gives rep/gear but not much XP.

Have been spamming DOFFs and obviously doing all episodes; the only thing I haven't been doing much of is patrol missions: should I grind those out? Otherwise been doing the PvE queues.

Wondering if I should try the PvP queues, at least for the dailies. Am I right in assuming there is still a sub-60 bracket, where T6 ships will not appear?

Have also started crafting up: this time it should be better. Certainly the idea of upgrading Mk II's is worthwhile, since I managed to upgrade 2 of my beam arrays to Ultra Rare quality between Mk IV and V!

[Sysil]

Made level 55 and Admiral last night, yay!

Congrats!

Looking for specific tips to increase the XP gain. I've probably been spending a bit too much time in the newly-discovered (to me) Sphere adventure zone, which gives rep/gear but not much XP.

Once you get access to the Argala patrol mission, just doing it over and over again. It's the most efficient way to gain XP, and the most efficient way to lose your mind.

Wondering if I should try the PvP queues, at least for the dailies. Am I right in assuming there is still a sub-60 bracket, where T6 ships will not appear?

Tier 6 ships are minimum VA ships, so they will appear in all VA and up queues.

Have also started crafting up: this time it should be better. Certainly the idea of upgrading Mk II's is worthwhile, since I managed to upgrade 2 of my beam arrays to Ultra Rare quality between Mk IV and V!